Cheap grocery store eggs vs. Pastured eggs page

[camel]

So I'm thinking about making the change to pastured eggs. I eat a ton of eggs, so the price difference is considerable. (I buy 30-50 per week for 2 people) How worthwhile is this change?
Are store eggs devoid of nutrition?
What in particular are the benefits of pastured eggs.
And how to find cheap pastured eggs.

Thanks in advance for any opinions or research on this!

[Danielle5690]

We go through about 3 dozen eggs a week. We used to have a good source of pastured eggs through a friend who had backyard hens. That's becoming more and more popular, so check around with people you know and see if anyone has some and is willing to sell you eggs.

We lost that source, sadly, so we are back to grocery store eggs. They aren't entirely devoid of nutrition, they're just less optimal. They're still better than cereal!

[Finnegans Wake]

Always listen to Mother:

Meet Real Free-Range Eggs
The Chicken and Egg Page: Test Results
Free Range vs. Pastured: Chicken and Eggs
Is Agribusiness Making Food Less Nutritious?
More Great News About Free-range Eggs

We've been eating local pastured eggs exclusively for years, even though it costs about 3-4 times more than crap eggs. Seriously, grocery store eggs are crap. You don't know how many weeks or months they've been there. The yolks are pale and small, the whites are sad and defeated. Pastured eggs taste like EGGS, not like eggs?

Yes, the crap eggs have some nutritional content, but do a side-by-side test of appearance and taste.

[Sandra in BC]

Grocery store foods are CHEAP because they are designed to be that way. Price matters more than quality. Sadly, health and nutrition will suffer.

Get used to the price of what REAL FOOD costs. Buy the best quality that your budget and resources will allow. Do some research. Plan your meals around the deals, and fill your freezer with the best meat you can find. Prioritize. If eggs are important to you, spend a little more, and cut corners somewhere else. Primal eating seems expensive at first, but once you cook almost all your meals at home and cut out restaurant, fast food and convenience food, your actual eating budget will be lower. And don't beat yourself up about eating less than "perfectly primal."

I buy 1/4 or 1/2 grassfed, family/friend raised cow at a time. Cut and wrapped its almost $6/lb. (actually a bargain compared to individual cuts at retail) Its more expensive than grocery store meat. BUT hubby also hunts, and our game, cut and wrapped, comes in under $2/lb. I supplement that with rock bottom grocery store deals on poultry and pork. The more hubby kills, the less commercial meat I have to buy.

[solstice]

We raise our own birds for eggs and they are FAR superior in taste and looks and MUST be in nutrition! That being said, last winter when my ladies were low producers (low sunlight=low egg laying), I supplemented with some crappy store eggs and they actually made me feel ILL after eating them. Very noticeable difference. I went to sourcing a local farmer who had some extra eggs during that time of the year and they more resembled our backyard beauties!

[uni]

I understand the problem as I struggle with costs too (I eat lots of eggs).

I probably split my eggs 30% cheap supermarket, 70% free range "happy" eggs.

I can't tell the difference in terms of taste- probably because I've never sat down and eaten one of each to compare. However, I've read enough literature on here to tell me that free range eggs are better for me.

Prices seem to be dropping, probably due to more competition, but as Sandra said- they are priced that way because they are real foods.. It is what they are worth!!

[jakey]

i call bullshit on many things in terms of taste (grass-fed, organic etc.). health is another issue, but taste? grass fed rib-eye or conventional rib-eye is the same to me.

but eggs? here's where the differences get REAL. no comparison, always go pastured!!!!!

[palebluedots]

We get our eggs from several sources... direct from the farms if possible, sometimes at the farmer's market, and sometimes at Whole Foods. There are a few other supermarkets around here that are now carrying pastured eggs as well. They're cheaper by far if you can find a farmer to buy from directly.

[Dr. Bork Bork]

On a good day, 5 dozen conventional eggs costs just under $4 here. Kinda hard to pass up. If I didn't eat eggs that often, I'd source local stuff, but from cooking and what not, we tend to go through a lot. At one point we were eating 10 dozen eggs per month. That would have killed our grocery budget if it was free range. You have to do what works for you & your family. Conventional eggs beats a bowl of conventional cereal in my opinion! Even if you shop at Walmart and are following the spirit of Primal (purchasing meat, veggies, fruit, and avoiding processed goods), you're still better off than 80-90% of the country.

[Finnegans Wake]

i call bullshit on many things in terms of taste (grass-fed, organic etc.). health is another issue, but taste? grass fed rib-eye or conventional rib-eye is the same to me.

but eggs? here's where the differences get REAL. no comparison, always go pastured!!!!!

Jakey, I can tell a HUGE difference with ground beef. When I started getting grass-fed, I would just smell the beef and it smelled... I can't describe it except to say clean and fresh. The flavor profiles of muscle meats may have minute variations, but when it comes to fattier cuts, again, a huge difference. And even with steaks, the freshness is just far superior. I've never had a grass-fed that had any quality issues, but I've had plenty of steaks that I took out of packages that looked great... until I saw they had brown spots underneath.

Never going back to CAFO beef. JMO. Just had some rib steaks last week that were amazing, had some pastured pork chops a few nights ago that were close to orgasmic. Pastured pork is so far above any commercial pork it's criminal. These chops had a ring of fat that most people would have cut off. For me, eye-rolling intensity.